Harper's Weekly Editorials on Carl Schurz/Mr. Schurz's Letter 1
MR. SCHURZ'S LETTER.
In the campaign of 1884 there was no abler or more
efficient advocate of the election of Mr. Cleveland
than Carl Schurz. His speech in Brooklyn at the
opening of the canvass was the clearest, completest,
and most unanswerable statement of the reasons of
the independent movement against Mr. Blaine.
Like all Mr. Schurz's speeches and papers, it was
calm and temperate in tone, but most forcible and
incisive in argument. Among the prominent
supporters of Mr. Cleveland in that year, however, no
one has been more disappointed by the President's
course in regard to reform in the civil service than
Mr. Schurz. This disappointment he has not sought
to conceal, and his necessary absence and detention
in Europe, together with his refusal to be interviewed
upon American politics, has led to the statement that
he was opposed to the President's re-election. A letter
from him, dated September 15th at Kiel, and
addressed to an independent of '84 in Wisconsin, whose
name is not given, but who is now a supporter of
General Harrison, states
Mr. Schurz's view of the
situation. He supports Mr. Cleveland for the best
reasons, and will vote for him if he should be able to
return in time.
Mr. Schurz's letter is a lucid and comprehensive summary of the real issue of the election. He begins by expressing his regret and disappointment at the President's departure from his original programme, and shows, as we think justly, the insufficiency of the explanations offered for it. But while he admits the force of the plea that such shortcomings should not be permitted to pass with impunity, he thinks that reformers who would punish the President by defeat, if they should succeed would punish the country still more. The course of the campaign shows, in his judgment, that Republican success means the ascendency of Mr. Blaine in the administration, and after 1884 Mr. Schurz is not frightened by the cry of disaster as the consequence of the President's re-election. The President proposes nothing which the Republican party has not proposed, while the Republican platform sacrifices the pledges of better days. The fundamental Republican assertion of this year, that the free importation of raw material would destroy the protective system, and with it our industries, would make Henry Clay, the great champion of protection, turn in his grave. Mr. Schurz with admirable ability demonstrates that the larger the market for American products, the more prosperous will be American industry, that wages do not depend upon a high tariff, and that the free entry of raw materials has never reduced wages.
No part of the letter is more worthy of careful reflection than that in which Mr. Schurz points out that as a high tariff tends to destroy foreign competition at the cost of the American consumer, so “Trusts” destroy domestic competition, and leave the American consumer at the mercy of a doubly fortified monopoly. The inevitable consequence in a free and public-spirited country like ours will be a sudden and complete and disastrous overthrow of the whole protective system. The Trust is but the younger brother of the Tariff. They are products of the same policy, and its approval in the pending election would be, for the reasons stated, a dangerous menace to the whole scheme of protected industries. The cardinal question of the election therefore is whether tariff reform shall come in the temperate and prudent way proposed by the President or in the shape of an angry reaction. This alone would be a conclusive argument for the support of Mr. Cleveland. But there are others, notwithstanding all disappointment with his course in administrative reform. His Presidency has relieved the country of the feeling that half of the whole body of citizens are disloyal, and that the government could not pass from one party to another without peril. The ability of his administration, its fidelity to the public interests, and its wholesome conservative spirit have greatly won the confidence of the country, while his message has identified his candidacy with an economic policy which promises to adjust dangerous differences, to enlarge the area of industrial activity, and to secure a steady development of the general prosperity. For such reasons Mr. Schurz does not hesitate to declare for Mr. Cleveland, and the campaign will not see a more cogent and conclusive, a juster, abler, or more truly American plea in scope and spirit, than his letter.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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